European Photobook Market Value to Exceed 650 Million Euros in 2011

The photobook market across Western Europe continues to witness strong growth and is on track to exceed 650 million euros this year. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) November 30, 2011 - The Western European photobook market is on track to achieve 20% growth this year, with value expected to top 650 million euros, according to a new photobook market report from Futuresource Consulting.

"The photobook market continues to put in a strong performance across Western Europe," says Joanna Wright, Senior Market Analyst, Futuresource Consulting, "with our forecasts showing shipments will exceed 20 million units this year, and will continue to grow throughout the forecast period out to 2015.

"However, consumer awareness and acceptance of photobooks is still relatively low in most countries. The UK and Italy are performing least favourably, with only 2% to 3% of households purchasing a photobook, while Benelux leads the way at 15%. When compared with households that printed their photos this year - around 30% across Western Europe - and digital cameras at 70% household penetration, there are definite opportunities for growth across the region. A renewed focus on marketing activities will help drive product uptake, with a move towards TV and newspaper campaigns that will bolster existing online advertising strategies. Additionally, promotion at retail can be highly influential and will have its part to play as the market moves forward."

Photos are increasingly being stored in the cloud, rather than locally on consumers' hard drives, making photobook creation possible across a wide variety of personal and public devices. At present, more than 100 billion personal photos are stored in cloud services such as Facebook, Flickr, Kodak Gallery and Photobox. In addition, the Western European installed base of tablets, smartphones and connected CE devices (including TVs and Blu-ray Players) is set to grow from 160 million units in 2010 to nearly 600 million units by 2015. Embedded solutions in photo libraries such as Facebook, Flickr and Google+ are being trialled, with fan pages and apps available, but usage and awareness has yet to gain traction.

"Moving forward, a number of new business models could emerge, particularly within self-publishing and school yearbooks, as well as a blurring between consumer and professional markets for wedding albums and children's portraits," says Wright. "The two overriding factors that will see the photobook market ramp up are still consumer awareness and a simplified and improved online workflow, helping to increase conversion rates and reduce the negative feedback sometimes associated with creating photobooks, mainly focused around lengthy creation processes and unintuitive user interfaces."

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